"Looking back, I shouldn’t have been so reckless. I should have waited for morning, for all the administrators to gather. But I wasn’t thinking about that at the time. I just crossed the dim living room and pushed open the bedroom door."

The story ended there, rather abruptly. The fact that Zhao Zhenjia was still standing here meant he hadn’t encountered a truly malicious spirit that night.

"The instant my hand touched the lock, the muffled sounds, the girl’s crying—it all vanished from behind the door. I hesitated for a second, but opened the door anyway.

"Your bedroom was a complete mess. Marbles were scattered all over the floor, and your once-white bedsheets were covered in knife and claw marks, spattered with blood.

"The only saving grace was that you weren’t there. The... thing that had snuck into your room... its target was clearly you.

"When I realized it wasn’t in the bedroom, I rushed to the window—it hadn’t jumped. Then I checked under the bed, in the bathroom, and everywhere else it could possibly hide, but I came up empty.

"Later, Jiang Yang finally showed up, having just returned to the apartment. Then Xia Ta and Yu Sheng arrived, too. We searched the entire third floor but found no other anomalies."

That was why, after Gao Tian returned, he had to room with Jiang Yang.

It was now certain that supernatural forces had completely descended upon the third floor. If Gao Tian continued to sleep alone in his bedroom, he would most likely be silently murdered in his sleep. Even with Zhao Zhenjia and Jiang Yang right next door, a trip that took only ten-odd seconds, they probably wouldn’t make it in time. 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

This also meant something else: the expedition to the upper floors had to be moved up.

If they delayed any longer, the entire third floor would likely become a supernatural hunting ground, and it might even spread to the second. Then there wouldn’t be a single safe spot left in the apartment.

Xia Ta glanced at the clock on the wall.

"Lan Chu will be back in Shanghai in a day.

"Yu Sheng, you said you’d make us a list of the rules-based horror stories and the rooms that mean certain death on the fourth and fifth floors.

"Gao Tian, you just stay here and get some rest. We’re going to the next room to discuss this. What happens next doesn’t concern you."

The others in the room prepared to leave. Gao Tian lay on the bed. Having lost the black card, it seemed he was destined to be left out of this expedition.

’That’s fine, I guess.’

’I just got back from the Inner World, so a few days of rest would do me good.’

...

A day later, Gao Tian had recovered enough to move around freely in the apartment.

During that time, he hadn’t heard the sound of marbles from upstairs.

Although he was sharing a room with Jiang Yang, Jiang Yang had been spending all his time next door, where the administrators were discussing detailed strategies for the ascent and creating contingency plans.

Each administrator possessed their own distinct Supernatural Artifacts, and teamwork on this scale was unprecedented. Before heading up, they needed to hash out who would be responsible for which types of spirits and how they would coordinate their efforts.

Gao Tian didn’t forget to retrieve the prophetic red urn from the next room.

’Even though I can’t go upstairs, maybe I can get some kind of revelation from this future urn.’

Inside the urn, the stream in the grotto was crystal clear. The delicate white skeleton still stood guard before the text on the wall behind it, holding its meditative pose.

He wasn’t sure if it was a trick of the mind, but Gao Tian felt that the posture of the meditating skeleton, the White Bone Master, had shifted ever so slightly.

It was leaning forward just a fraction, as if it were trying to stand up.

The rest of the scene inside the grotto, however, hadn’t changed in the slightest.

No vision of the future appeared. Gao Tian called out tentatively.

"Hasten, as the law commands?"

’Master Yunshan was a Seeking Daoist in life. Would those words provoke a reaction?’

The beautiful scene in the urn remained perfectly still. Not even the pond rippled.

"I want to see the future?"

"Please prophesize what will happen when we go to the fourth floor the day after tomorrow."

"Open, sesame."

...

He tried all sorts of passphrases, but the urn remained motionless, as if it had become a mere decorative object, having lost the magical power it possessed when he first saw it.

Gao Tian felt dejected. He started to think back to the first time he saw a vision, trying to recall exactly what he’d done. Any single detail could be the key to activating the urn.

While he was still lost in thought, a gray mist began to rise from within the urn, shrouding the skeleton, the stone wall, and the small pond. When Gao Tian noticed this, his heart leaped. He remembered this was the exact prelude to the urn’s first prophecy.

The future urn was starting to work.

It was like a blind squirrel finding a nut; he had no idea what he’d done right, but it was finally starting.

The mist thinned, revealing a narrow, dilapidated alley. The alley was bizarre; its walls—front, back, left, and right—were completely covered in mirrors of all shapes and sizes. They were crammed so tightly together that the remaining walkway was extremely narrow. Navigating this Mirror Alley without breaking any glass would be quite a challenge.

What shocked Gao Tian was that in an alley so narrow you could barely pass through sideways, two figures were on the ground, grappling with each other.

One of them, dressed in a white shirt, had a build remarkably similar to his own. He looked closer and realized it was a future "Gao Tian." Here, in this unknown Mirror Alley, he was locked in a desperate struggle, fighting with savage abandon.

The one pinned to the ground, straddled by "Gao Tian," was a terrifying-looking old man. He appeared to have been flayed, his blood-red flesh completely exposed. Gao Tian could faintly see the man’s heart beating beneath the surface and his intestines slowly writhing.

What was left of his skin could barely contain his bones and organs; he looked like he might fall apart at any moment.

’This isn’t a fucking person, it’s a ghost, isn’t it?’

’Is "Gao Tian" brawling with a ghost?’

Gao Tian was so captivated by the scene that he felt like his eyeballs were about to fall into the urn.

’Is my future self this badass?’

The fight in Mirror Alley was fierce. It looked like "Gao Tian" had the upper hand, but in reality, the red old man pinned beneath him was landing punch after punch on "Gao Tian’s" chest. Even though the world inside the urn was silent, the Gao Tian watching from outside could see shockwaves ripple out from the impacts, like silent sonic booms.

’Just how strong is this red old man?’

Humans and ghosts were on completely different levels. Even a shriveled-up old man of a ghost possessed demonic, monstrous strength.

The "Gao Tian" on top wore an expression of agony. The Blood Shroud he was wearing absorbed half the damage, and his injured internal organs were rapidly healing under its effects. Otherwise, with a normal human constitution, two of those punches would have been enough to kill him.

After landing several punches, the red old man was also stunned by how tough this kid was. It wasn’t very intelligent, but it knew from past killings that a single punch of its was enough to shatter a human skull. This was the first time it had ever encountered someone so durable.

Close-quarters combat wasn’t its specialty to begin with. After seven or eight punches failed to kill "Gao Tian," the red old man decided to flee. The Red Ghost no longer wanted to fight. It desperately pushed "Gao Tian" off, squirming as it tried to escape the wretched alley.

’What the hell,’ the ghost thought. ’First time I’ve ever met a psycho like this.’

But "Gao Tian" was incredibly stubborn. He was covered in so much of his own blood he was practically dyeing the Blood Shroud red all over again. He refused to let go, staying firmly on top of the red old man.

The two descended into a wild, sloppy brawl. Even with his face bloodied, "Gao Tian" refused to let go, and they were once again locked in an endless struggle.

Watching this, the Gao Tian outside the urn was left completely stunned.

’What kind of grudge is this? What is all this hatred about?’

’If I were in that situation and the ghost wanted to run, I’d just let it go. You can’t kill the damn thing anyway. If you just hold it down and keep tanking the damage with your own body, you’ll eventually be beaten to death by that red old man.’

But the "Gao Tian" in the urn seemed to have gone completely berserk. He was willing to be beaten to the point of internal bleeding just to keep the red old man from escaping Mirror Alley.

"Gao Tian’s" behavior was not normal at all.

’What in the world is going to happen in the future?’